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New Year's is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.

As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.

So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.

Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.

Hey, it's Guy here. You know, I like to think that there's something special and unique about every single episode we do, but this one, this guy,

even though I interviewed him almost a year ago, I'm still kind of obsessed with this story, because it's about a guy who built a huge business out of junk.

This episode first ran in April of 2017. Hope you enjoy it.

I was learning much more running a business on the streets versus studying in school, and I remember sitting down with my father, who's a liver transplant surgeon.

Wow.

But I remember having to sit down to him and just say, Dad, got some good news for you.

And I presented it as good news, because to me it was good news, and I thought if I could get him excited, he might agree with me, and I told him I was leaving school.

And he said, you're dropping at a school to become a junk man.

From NPR, it's how I built this, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.

I'm Guy Ross, and on today's show, how an old pickup truck and a simple idea inspired Brian Scootomore to build the largest junk calling service in the world.

By this point, if you've been listening to the show, you know all about the inspiring people who had an idea and then ran with it.

Whether it was Sarah Blakely, with Spanx, or Tony Shea, with Zappos, they had a vision, and they pursued it.

But almost all of them, they had to go through a complicated process to get from idea to implementation.

Which is why today's story is such a contrast, because while junk calling may not sound sexy, Brian Scootomore's idea was comparatively elegant and simple.

He didn't need a whole lot of money to start, he didn't need any outside investors, and he didn't need to hire anyone, at least at first.

And to be clear, Brian did not dream of a life-halling away other people's trash.

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